Imaginary Cuba

Your taste for Bill Laswell's collection and reconstruction of various Cuban sounds on Imaginary Cuba depends entirely on your taste for the patented sonic stamp that the producer, bassist, and "mix translator" affixes to nearly all his projects. In other words, Laswell's Imaginary Cuba is just that: a made-up journey through various Afro-Cuban percussion tracks, street singing, and strummed tres melodies, with more than a healthy helping of Laswell's familiar ambient-wash production and sometimes-intrusive, added hip-hop/dub backbeats. Gathering performances by Cuban musicians such as Frank Emilio, Septeto Nacional, Los Ibellis, and others, the disc isn't so much a various-artists compilation as it is a DJ mix, complete with added production and beats that move each track seamlessly into the next. There are moments when Laswell's production takes him to some interesting territory, as on the four "Habana Transmission" tracks, where he layers breakbeats, dub bass lines, and hip-hop snare drums beneath washes of Afro-Cuban percussion and tres guitar parts. However, listeners looking for more traditional Cuban music may be somewhat disappointed, as this is less a faithful recording of Afro-Cuban music than it is one producer's vision of the marriage between Afro-Cuban music and his own already-developed sound. --Ezra Gale